Ohio’s Overlooked Low-Income Health Care Need

Oh happy day for Pinkie Gordon. After 16 years of waiting and never quite feeling like herself, she’ll finally get her perfect smile.

 “She has an old partial that has broken actually it broke twice,” Dr. Samuel Taylor who is a dentist at his own private practice explains. “We’re gonna actually be able to repair her partial. She’s got two teeth missing off of her partial. We’re gonna be able to repair that today and this afternoon, she’s gonna get teeth back.”

Gordon says her dental troubles started at gathering she decided to attend with a friend. Somewhere along the night someone accidentally bumped into her mouth.

“I went on without seeking dental care and all the time my nerves were damaged and my teeth-even though my teeth looked very well, healthy, the nerves were damaged,” Gordon said. “So by the time I did get to the dentist office and get treatment for my teeth, I had to lose all, the whole front.”

Years later, Gordon is finally getting some relief. Non-profit Medworks is providing her with that perfect smile, replacing her bridge, for free. A cost she says would have cost her upwards of $500.

“Knowing that it’s complete. It finally has got some type of completion or some type of maintenance because I’ve been waiting for maintenance for a long time. So its gonna do me real good as far as lifting my spirit, my look,  confidence, all of that,” Gordon said.

That is confidence for Pinky and hundreds of others who participated in Medworks’ Annual Dental Clinic. Metro-area clevelanders with their own stories waited for screenings, extractions, cleanings, fillings, sealants, and even flippers. All services were taken care of by 400 volunteer dental professionals.

Proving that link for those in need is what Medworks CEO Dr. Jerome Belinson says they’re all about.

“To really meet the community need we needed to do something on a grander scale. Everything we do is free.No questions asked, no proof of insurance, you just walk in the door and we care for you,” Belinson said.
C

Dental care is the number one unmet health need in Ohio for low-income adults and children. Without dental insurance, sitting in the dental chair for treatments can range anywhere from $100 for a cleaning to over $1,000 if a crown or root canal is required.

To substitute, many Ohioans, turn to emergency rooms after waiting until dental situations got unbearable, Belinson said.

A 2014 study by health-care advocacy group UNCAN Ohio, found that between 2009 and 2011, at least 84,000 people annually went to Ohio emergency rooms for dental pain. The cost totaled $188.5 million dollars.

“It’s extraordinarily important to recognize,” Belinson urged. “If your teeth are not healthy you don’t eat healthy, and you often have bacteria that are circulating around your body continuously and it can really affect all organs and health in general.”

The cost barrier is exactly why Gordon says she’s so thankful to be in the dental chair now.

“I did not expect to get this. I really came on a hope and prayer and it just was a blessing that it all worked out,”Gordon said relieved.

Since 2009, Medworks has held more than 50 clinics in Northeast Ohio and provided more than 15,000 individuals from old to young with services.